Friday, 25 July 2014

Cool drinks are an essential in this beautiful hot weather not only to cool us down but to keep us hydrated. I don't know about you, but I still need my little coffee fix now and again though hot coffee isn't so appealing when the sun is shining.

Enter the iced coffee!

When I saw the Mullerlight yogurt in Skinny Cappuccino flavour, with dark chocolate bits, my immediate thought was "Oooh iced coffee!" So having purchased a couple I set about experimenting.

I didn't want to use up any syns or healthy extras (those familiar with Slimming World will understand what I mean here) so with the thought that the Indian yogurt drink lassi is made by diluting yogurt with water I decided to try that first. I tipped the yogurt into a jug and added an equal quantity of water and a small handful of ice cubes. I blended using my stick blender then tasted.

I often find the Mullerlight yogurts too sweet for my taste and this was definitely the case here - it tasted overly sweet with only a hint of the coffee flavour that I wanted. I tried adding a teaspoon of instant coffee and re-blended.

Mmmm, better, but still the balance between coffee and sweetness was not quite right.

Sunday, 6 July 2014

As a type 2 diabetic I can't eat white bread without my blood glucose levels soaring. Wholemeal bread is a little better but not a lot, so, I was very excited to discover the recipe for South African Seed Bread in Anthony Worrall Thompson's GI Diet Book.

The bread is extremely low GI due to the quite large amount of seeds in it. I adapted the recipe slightly as I only had sunflower seeds and linseeds, the original recipe calls for both these seeds but also for pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds, so I just doubled the quantities of the two types of seed I had available. I don't usually include sugar or fat in my bread recipes so I also left out these two ingredients. I also had no wheat bran in so I just upped the amount of flour. The bread is quite a dense bread as you might expect, but in my opinion, that is how a wholemeal bread should be. It has a delicious almost nutty flavour to it and the seeds give it an interesting texture, but best of all, it doesn't cause my blood glucose level to spike.

It is super easy to make and requires no kneading so no excuse for not giving it a go!

My Adaptation of South African Seed Bread

Makes 2 Loaves.

700g Wholemeal Flour

2tsp Fast action dried yeast

100g Sunflower seeds

100g Linseeds (So long as you use 200g of seeds in total I don't suppose it matters too much which seeds you use.)

1 tsp salt

600ml hand hot water. (I use 1/2 and 1/2 boiling water and cold water mixed together and find the temperature about right)

Grease 2 900g loaf tins. Mix the flour, seeds, yeast and salt together in a bowl. Add the water and mix to a soft dough. Divide the mixture between two tins and leave to rise until the mixture reaches the top of the tins. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200C / Gas Mark 6 and bake for approx 40 mins until nicely browned. To check they are cooked turn them out of the tins and tap the bottom of the loaf - it should sound hollow.

A note about rising - you do not have to have heat for bread to rise. It will rise faster in a warm place, but you can even rise your dough in the fridge if you give it long enough. I find a tip I was given years ago to place the dough in a clean plastic bin bag works well every time.

About Me

I am 57 years young and live in Weardale one of the Durham Dales, and an area described as "Englands Last Wilderness". I have four now grown up "children", one son and three daughters. I am also the proud Nana of Felicity, otherwise known as Flic - aged 8 and more recently Catherine also known as Cat - born June 2015. I keep trying hard to lead a simpler more meaningful life but it sometimes feels an uphill struggle, however, I will get there! I love vintage home-wares and am forever on the lookout for new to me items to add to my home. I love to cook, enjoy a spot of jewellery making and like to try out various sewing projects and the odd bit of crochet.